Monday, April 29, 2013

Lately I have been going through a phase in which I read
books, fiction and non-fiction, about women who are strong in who they are as
individuals, don’t let their pasts define who they are in the present tense of
the books and, most importantly to me anyways, are not wimpy.

Throughout my childhood and teen years, I recall watching
many movies and tv shows with my parents, the majority of them being of the
western genre, where so many female characters were wimpy, useless and likely
to get themselves killed if they acted like frightened children.I usually always hated them and don’t recall
reading any books in my teen years or adulthood in which the women were in
which the women were written to be unequal and inferior to men.For the most part, in the books with lead
female characters that I am drawn to, the women are strong, smart, work
successfully in a ‘man’s’ world, daring and don’t back down from a fight.One female character that has long been a favorite of mine
is Scarlett O’hara.Of course by the
time the sequel to “Gone With The Wind” was written, she was Scarlett
O’hara-Hamilton-Kennedy-Butler, because she was a woman who went after what she
wanted and used men to get there.I
loved Scarlett and still do.I have in
the past heard her described as money-hungry bitch and she may have been, at
times.But there is much more to her
character than just that description.She was incredibly smart, business-savvy, bucked normal social
conventions, didn’t always depend on
men to secure her place in life or have financial security and didn’t worry
what society in general thought of her.For these reasons and more, I love her character.

I really enjoy reading books, whether auto/biographical or fictitious,
where the women take risks, are bold, adventurous, spirited, courageous,
determined and fun.

Here are some of the books I have read lately that had these
kinds of women in them:

The SisterhoodSeries by Fern Michaels (fiction), War Brides by Helen Bryan (based on
historical facts), Eighty Days: Nelly
Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew
Goodman (non-fiction),Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious
Woman and Without Reservations: The
Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach (autobiographies), and Mama Moon (True, inspirational story of
courage, love & triumph!) by Susan Gayle (biography)

It has been a while since I read Mama Moon, but it was about a poor immigrant from the Asian
continent (sorry, I forget the country), who labored tremendously to get
herself out of her destitute situation and raised a family, all the while just
being grateful to be in a country with so many opportunities for work and
bettering your life.There were many
times she could have thrown in the towel and gave up, but that was not
her.Quitting was not in this woman’s
blood.She worked on well into her
retirement years, worked through and survived cancer, and endured a few
unfortunate business decisions and in the end made something of herself.Mama Moon wanted to be an inspiration to all
around her and definitely lived the old adage “when life hands you lemons, make
lemonade.”

The books I have read by Alice Steinbach show her to be a
woman of strength, adventure, loves to learn and wants as much out of her life
as she can get.She travels to various
countries to learn something about their cultures and embraces any bumps she
finds along the road.These bumps in her
path allow her to learn from experience and maybe even have a different
experience than what she planned.I
admire her willingness to travel for educational reasons.It is great to immerse yourself in another
culture as much as you can to see how others live, to open up any closed minds
and eradicate old prejudices.

To prevent this entry from being exceedingly long, I will
not summarize the other books, but if you have time or the interest, I would
recommend reading them.

This entry was born because lately I have been casually
considering some of the hardships past women were put through because of men
and the battles they had to face to show these insulting, selfish, demanding
and power-hungry men that women are much more qualified for work and success
than just cooking and cleaning.We still
have to fight these battles, though on a much smaller scale fortunately.One example of my casual consideration is
this: when we all went to vote last
November, I really felt that it was my duty to vote, not only because it is a
civic right, but because of the past, courageous and fearless women who fought,
were beaten and jailed for, this most basic of citizen rights.We all deserve to have our opinions count in
these matters.*Let me just clarify that
I have voted in several previous elections since turning 18, but this was the first
time I really felt the great struggles of past women’s rights activists so we could vote.And I felt proud that I could/can vote
because of those strong women.*

So to these women and others I am thankful.I am thankful for the stories written about
real and fictitious women.I am thankful
that many women of prior centuries blazed a trail for recent generations of
women to able to work in jobs traditionally held by men, give the opportunities
for higher education, give the option to have the men stay home and cook, clean
and raise the kids and to remind us to never give up and keep moving forward.I hope stories of these real and imagined women
never stop being told and written.

About Me

I am happily married and work full-time in the personal lines insurance industry. Hubby and I eloped to Las Vegas in May 2009 and then became dog parents in January 2010. Dog takes up quite a bit of time but he is goofy and so much fun.

My early years were made of riding horses and competing in various events in rodeos. That was a great way to grow up. Hubby and I moved to Atlanta in 2007. I really enjoyed living in the city and all of the exciting things you can do here; then we moved in 2014 to NC and now live in the out in country. Quite a different pace of life to say the least!